General Question

Is there anything legal that can be done about the MAPs community on Tumblr(NSFW, details inside)

This question mentions pedophiles so if that’s an upsetting thing for you, be warned

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There is a Tumblr community called MAPs (Minor-attracted people) which, you guessed it, are pedophiles. My friend told me about this community and I looked into it (very briefly, it was upsetting) and I want to know if anything legal can be done about it, or if emailing Tumblr about these accounts would change anything.

One account is a person who says they are 21 and talks about having a crush on a 12-year-old.
Another account is a 22-year-old who admits to being a pedophile and admits to having crushes on 6-year-olds.
I feel that some of these accounts might be fake and trolls, but there’s so many it’s impossible that they are all trolls.

This community says that they are “no-contact” pedophiles, meaning they don’t actually touch kids, just fantasize and crush on them. They defend pedophilia, saying it’s not wrong to be attracted to kids as long as you don’t touch them. They want the age of consent lowered, for it to be normalized, and for their attraction to be apart of the LGBT+ community as “Pedosexual”.

Obviously, this is very disgusting and upsetting. Is there anything legally that could be done and would emailing Tumblr to monitor/moderate these people do any good? I know free speech is a thing, but this can’t be something that’s allowed. It’s absolutely disgusting.

Also, these people claim that child porn is good because “it helps prevent them from touching kids”.
They feel that normalizing this will prevent them from touching kids because it helps them get support and help.

17 Answers

Sounds like they’re doing nothing illegal, so no, there’s nothing legal that can be done. At most Tumblr could decide to implement a policy barring such discussions from its site, but no legal action could be taken.

@Darth_Algar I figured on the legal actions. I think I’m going to email Tumblr. I’ve found that many of them have gotten banned before, but came back under new names.

Maybe it’s stupid for me to go to such lengths. But minors have access to Tumblr. Young kids who don’t need to be exposed to that whether on accident or whatnot. Plus, who knows if a minor messages one of these people or the other way around.

I totally support these people getting help for it. It’s a disgusting mindset and if they know that and are attempting to change it that’s good. But this Tumblr community is saying that they don’t need help for having those thoughts, and it’s completely normal. That mindset is inherently bad. Not the mindset of getting help.

Also, I am drafting an email now. I might share it here and get your thoughts if that’s okay. I’m asking them to put a moderator/ban on the tags, not individual users because the users keep coming back.

I wasn’t intentionally looking for this stuff, and I’m not reading any of the tags anymore. I’m pissed off to the point where I’m just going straight to Tumblr. I saw many, many accounts arguing with the users and all that and I feel that isn’t going to do anything if they don’t have the mindset to change.

and @rockfan that’s what they claim the community is for. They think that by normalizing being attracted to children, that will encourage them to get help.

So I drafted an email. Again, warning as there are things mentioned that’s just gross.
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Hello,
I was wondering if I could bring something to your attention about certain Tumblr tags and communities on Tumblr.
I have a safe filter on my Tumblr as I am a minor, and I don’t like seeing some of the sexual tags. Someone I was following reblogged a post about a community that calls themselves MAPs or “Minor-attracted person”. This post was about a user who thought that having “violent rape fantasies” about children was okay as long as they don’t act on it. I have since learned that many people in this community are self-proclaimed pedophiles, who admit to having crushes on 6-year-old kids (when they themselves are 21, their username is therealmapdean)
This community claims they are good because they think that by normalizing pedophilia, many people will seek help. But, many people on this site aren’t getting any help, and are saying that they shouldn’t need to get help.
There is an “anti” community to this as well. This is a community that is against pedophiles and does whatever they can to call them out, report them, etc. They are primarily minors. Minors on your site are actively being exposed to these people. Yes, they are doing it willingly but your site should not be allowing this to happen.
This is not something any sort of minor should see, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Supporting/promoting pedophiles is something that shouldn’t be allowed on your site for many reasons:
1) There are minors on this site and nothing is stopping curious minors from PMing them, or vice versa.
2) The users aren’t just trying to promote being a pedo, they are saying that it’s okay to fantasize about rape, abuse, and traumatizing children as long as you don’t actually do it. They are not recognizing that it is not normal and that they need help
3) As stated above, nothing is stopping minors from getting messages from these people, and they are getting messages. This is putting every minor on this site at risk of being talked to by a pedo. Not only that, but they could be viewing tags that have children in them, or are posted by young kids.
4) A few users were advocating for child porn. They think that by making it accessible, it will lower the physical crimes they commit.
This ideology is extremely harmful. There are users on this site who are victims of these kinds of people.
The tags they operate under; #maps #maps positivity #maps community #maps support #real maps positivity
Some users that are posting under these tags; Therealmapdean, thecuteitburns, mapsdeservesupport, anti-logic-isnt-logic, stebs-is-life (I believe his original was map-support-steven, but he got banned. He posted about how it was okay to have violent rape fantasies about children) can-bahami (Who has a crush on a 12 year old, as a 22 year old) maps-are-valid, and many, many more.
Something needs to be done about these people. I get that they aren’t doing anything illegal by just posting, but this type of thing is being seen by minors as young as 12. That’s harmful and messed up. I would suggest putting a mod on these tags, so minors can’t see them, banning the tags completely, or banning users who post in them. They shouldn’t be allowed on Tumblr. This goes beyond normal NSFW stuff. This is harmful and dangerous for minors to be seeing.

One thing that caught my eye in this thread: that the “MAP” people advocate for child porn. Presumably this means they obtain it themselves and possibly share it. This is illegal (the production, distribution, and/or possession), and does harm the children forced to participate in the filming/photography for adult gratification. I’m not sure if posting about something on a blog site gives police the grounds for a search warrant, or even how easily anonymous bloggers can be identified…. But it sounds like they are doing at least one illegal and directly harmful thing. Not sure if anything can be done there.

I also agree there’s a rather significant difference between raising awareness about something and normalizing it. From what I understand from this thread, it sounds like the “MAP” people are trying to blur the two for their own benefit (at the expense of the victims of their behavior—which, based on what I mentioned above, it sounds like there are despite their claims otherwise).